AUSTRALIA, A

FASCINATING

CONTINENT Author: Aliza Mansoor

COPYRIGHT: ALL RIGHTS RESERVED BY THE AUTHOR

OFFICIAL NAME

Commonwealth of Australia is the

official name. The name Australia is

derived from Latin word ‘Australis’

which means southern.

Capital City: Canberra is the capital

city of Australia. Other big cities are

Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane,

Perth, Hobart and Darwin. Over

200 different languages are spoken

in Australia.

ABOUT AUSTRALIA

Australia is the world’s 6th largest

country by area. It is one of the seven

continents in the world. The interesting

fact is that it is the smallest and

flattest continent and biggest island on

Earth. Australia is also known as the

‘island continent’ due to its large size

and its isolation from rest of the world.

A desert area known as the outback

covers much of the land. Around twelve

million kilometres is covered by its

world’s largest ocean territory. Humans

have lived in Australia for around

45,000 years. Did you know that

Population of Australia is over 22

million people? Australia’s landscape

includes mountain ranges, urban areas,

forests and deserts.

SEASONS

Australia is a country for all four

seasons. It’s summer from

December to February and a great

time to go out and about. Autumn

starts in March and lasts till May.

Winter time lasts from June to

August. Winters in Australia are

quite mild with not too much of

snow. Australia is dry with very

little rain. Did you know when we

have summers, Australians have

winters?

ABORIGINAL PEOPLE

The word ‘aboriginal’ means ‘the

first’ or ‘earliest known’. Australia

may be the home of the world’s first

people, cool huh! The humans lived

in Australia at least 12,000 years

before they appeared in Europe.

Aborigines make around 2% of

Australia’s population today. Did

you know that Aboriginal people

originally came from Indonesia?

Today, they live in the desert area

of Australia, the outback.

ABORIGINAL FOOD

Aboriginal people ate a very

balanced food like fruits, nuts, root

vegetables, seafood and meat. They

still hunt for oysters, mudshells,

crabs, fish, and shark. They also eat

lizards, crocodiles, kangaroos,

wallabies and pigs. Roasting over

hot wood coals, ground oven and

baking in wood ashes are the

cooking methods they use. Barbeque

and boiling are the new cooking

techniques they have learnt.

ART

Art was considered as essential part

of their lives. Bodies were painted

for ceremonies, and were taught to

the young ones as well. Wall art,

engraved rocks and bark paintings

are a form of storytelling which

describes the aboriginal life.

ABORIGINAL FLAG

The aboriginal flag is divided

horizontally in to two equal halves,

red and black with a yellow circle in

the centre. The black represents the

aboriginal people, red represents

the earth and the yellow circle

symbolises the sun.

LONELY NEIGHBOURHOOD

Did you know that much of the middle

of the country, the outback, is sparsely

populated? People sometimes live

miles from their neighbours. The

population of these areas is too small to

have doctor clinics, hospitals or schools.

So, the children rely on School of the

Air for their education and patients on

Flying doctors for healthcare. Two way

radios are the way of communication

between the teachers and their

students. Nowadays, lessons are

provided on the computers. Teachers

have to travel hundreds of miles to visit

their students from time to time. Flying

doctors provide medical services to the

patients in remote areas.

FAUNA

Australia is a beauty of nature. All

the people who live in this

incredible wildlife country are lucky

to have wild creatures even if some

of them can bite. Here is an

example of a biting animal, bundle

web spider. Australia’s unique

animals include mammals like the

dingo, Quoll, and Tasmanian Devil;

marsupials like wombats,

wallabies and kangaroos.

FAUNA

There are 55 different species of

wallabies and kangaroos. Reptiles

include lizards, crocodiles and

snakes. There are hundreds of bird

species and most of them are only

found in Australia such as parrots,

black swan and fairy penguins.

Marine animals are incredible

including world’s 22,000 types of

fish, for example, whale shark,

humpback, dolphins and sharks. If

you want to find fur seal, then the

best place to find it is the kangaroo

island.

FLORA

There are thousands of plant

species in Australia, including living

fossils such as the cycad palm, the

grass tree and amazing wildflowers

such as kangaroo paws. Eucalypts

also known as Gum tree, make up

almost 80 percent of the Australian

forests. Especially the Blue

Mountains have the diverse range

of Eucalypts species on Earth.

Australia’s unique flora also

includes Banksia (Bottlebrush),

Telopea, pink tiger plants, silver

and white snow daisies and yellow

billy buttons.

ECONOMY

Australia is a wealthy country. It

has plentiful natural resources

including coal, gold, iron ore,

copper, and natural gas. Australia

exports meat, wool, iron ore, wheat,

transportation equipment and

machinery. Its currency is

Australian Dollar.

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